Flag Feature: The Stars kept shining in 2025

From hunters to hunted.

That was the challenge for the Old Scotch Stars as they entered season 2025 as reigning William Buck Premier Women’s champions.

It proved to be the most competitive season in league history, after Caulfield Grammarians joined the winners of the previous four flags – St Kevin’s and Old Scotch – to create a genuine three-way battle for the ’25 premiership. It elevated the competition to new heights, with the four finals matches ultimately decided by a combined margin of just 25 points.

Reigning premiership coach Dean Anderson – who is no stranger to defending titles, given he entered 2025 with 15 on his resume as player or coach – knew full well that his team needed to keep improving if it was to stay in the flag race this year.

“I’ve been in footy a long time, and winning repeatedly is really difficult,” said Anderson.

“The comp’s getting better every year. So, to stay at the top, you’ve just got to keep getting better, because players across the league are getting better. You can’t afford to get comfortable.

“You enter Round 1 (Willy CYMS away) and you just don’t know where you sit. Once we played that game (87 point win), I knew we had a good side. But we lost the next week (to St Kevin’s) and dropped two of our first seven (Caulfield defeated them by 4 points in Round 7).

“So, I knew we were there and thereabouts. Somewhere in that Top 3.”

Caulfield Grammarians were the early standouts, sprinting out of the blocks to set a cracking pace. The Fields had finished third in 2024, five games behind St Kevin’s and Old Scotch during the home and away season, before ultimately being well beaten by the Stars on Preliminary Final Day.

“Was I surprised by their development? Not really. They had a couple of injuries in the 2024 Finals, so that Prelim result was a bit of an aberration. They were very aggressive in their recruiting and are well-coached and well-drilled. They’re a very determined group with good players. They’re a good team across the board.”

Dani Di Stefano’s team remained undefeated until St Kevin’s beat them by 2 points in Round 15. The next week, Old Scotch defeated them by 3 points. Going into the finals, all three of the leading premiership contenders now boasted a win over the other two. The whole competition had a brand new 3-horse dynamic.

“Caulfield’s rise absolutely added to the comp,” says Anderson, with his typical understated intensity. “It gave it an extra dimension and made the finals race more interesting.

“Caulfield had gone undefeated for so long and were very much the ‘new kid on the block’ that people were excited about. We got a growing sense that nobody in outside world wanted us to win. You naturally want the underdog to win, right?

“So, despite being the premiers, we didn’t see ourselves as the clear favourite. But one thing I do know for sure is that our whole squad puts in. High attendance at training, good standards, understanding how to get better. As a coach, I can only control the controllables. There are always changes in the wind and that’s healthy for the comp.

“I believed we were well placed entering the finals. We’d won 9 straight and beaten St Kevin’s away for the first time ever. But we knew there wasn’t much between us all, and so it proved to be.”

Having finished second, the Stars faced minor premiers Caulfield Grammarians in the Second Semi Final. They got the jump on the Fields early, kicking four unanswered goals in the opening quarter to set up a 25-point three-quarter time lead, before Caulfield stormed home with the breeze, booting 4 goals to 1 to ultimately fall just 6 points short.

The Stars were straight through to Grand Final Day, having learnt plenty from what turned out to be a tense afternoon at Coburg City Oval.

“The wind picked up in that last quarter, and things weren’t going our way, but we stuck at it.

“From that game, I took away that we’re a tough team that can defend really well and disciplined enough to follow the gameplan and hang on. Caulfield had an edge over us in terms of ground coverage, and the extra minutes in finals. We were learning on the go and realised later that we probably overcooked our mids and ran out of gas a bit.”

Caulfield shrugged off the disappointment of that narrow loss to finish strongly again and sneak past St Kevin’s by a kick themselves in a thrilling Preliminary Final, setting up a blockbuster Grand Final rematch with the reigning champs.

Dean felt that all the off-field time and energy the Stars had invested in each other had them well prepared for what looked certain to be another nail-biter.

“My philosophy at Scotch has always been to have an environment that’s about more than winning. Sure, we want to be competitive, but we really focus on the other factors that make people feel they belong at the place. That’s the ‘bread & butter’ of what I do in my day job as CEO of Leading Teams – it’s an empowerment model.

“We give our players empowerment around decisions. That has an enormous impact on their sense of belonging. You naturally feel more valued when people are listening to you. So, we’ve had lots of whole-of-club conversations around how we can be better, the purpose of why we’re all here, and the behaviours that are really important to us living together as a group.”

“People are generally smart enough to work out that they can’t have everything they want all the time. But if we have strong relationships with all our leaders, we can prioritise what’s most important, and that’s what you lean on in times such as Grand Final Week.

“We invested heavily in Katie Hunter-Scott as our first-year captain this year. Mia Caffrey (2024 captain) spent most of her year in the VFL, along with a few other players, and we love seeing them all getting those opportunities. It added a layer of opportunity, but also additional pressure on our group and our leaders. Katie and I spent a lot of time together this season, talking about things like fears and strengths.”

Dean’s lifetime of previous Grand Final experiences came to the fore once again in Grand Final Week.

“The external challenges will always come, but internally, we’re quietly confident in our high-performance culture. All that empowerment – the players own it and grow from it. We’re driven as a group, and I’m really competitive personally.

“So, we did sit there and dream a bit about dynasties. I talked about my 50-plus years in the game and the dearth of opportunities to create dynasties. It just doesn’t present too often. I could bring personal experiences like my son Noah at Gold Coast, and how hard the Suns had to work to make a final. Drawing on those experiences over time resonates with the players.

“My message was that we’re not here for a long time. So, let’s rip in and get as much out of it as we can. We spent moments dreaming about winning it – that’s ok. It can be a grind otherwise. We always keep working on the grind of getting better, but it’s also ok to dream and celebrate success along the way.”

Tactically, the lessons learned in the Second Semi were addressed by Dean and his coaching staff.

“Caulfield spread the ball well and run hard. We had a couple of things we had to tweak. We backed our spine and tried to go more direct. We knew they’d take a punt – they’d switch, use angles, run hard, and move it quickly. So, we had to plan for that and be clever with our rotations to share the load better amongst the older players in our midfield.”

The Fields didn’t allow the Stars to get the jump on them as was the case in the Second Semi – in fact, Old Scotch were held goalless in the opening term, before kicking 3 goals to 1 in the second quarter to lead by 4 points at the half.

The reigning champs looked to put the foot down in the third term, booting 1.6 to no score, to lead by 16 points at the final break as Dean pulled his group together for the three-quarter time address.

“We had a really good third quarter, but kicking 1.6 really hurt. If we kicked 3.3, the game’s over. But we were playing well. So, we reinforced what we were doing well, and asked the players to continue it,” Dean recalls.

“The main message was around trying to get it Inside 50 and then lock it in there. We missed couple of early opportunities to put the game to bed. But from there, we barely got it into our forward line. It was stuck in their 50 on the far side, so we  couldn’t even get fresh players on, let alone get it into our front half.”

Just as they did in the Second Semi, the super-fit, hard-running Fields surged back into the game. Nat Barbara marked in the goalsquare 11 minutes in and duly goaled to close the margin to 11 points, and when Team of the Year member Chloe O’Malley nailed a superb long-range set shot 3 minutes later, it was a 5-point game with half a quarter still to play.

Caulfield had the breeze, the momentum, the energy, the territory, and the burning belief that they could snatch the lead and win their first senior top-flight women’s flag.

It was gut-check time for the Stars.

All those hours spent working on themselves off the field would now be tested on it.

“We had to hang on for another 14 minutes into the breeze,” Dean reflects, with the fatigue of the moment creeping back into his voice.

The Fields threw everything they had at Old Scotch. Repeat stoppage after repeat stoppage inside their forward 50 – just one Stars’ defensive mistake away from disaster. A flying Caulfield snap at the 25-minute mark left the crowd holding its breath, but it sailed wide right and out on the full.

Another two heart-stopping minutes would expire before the siren finally sounded to confirm Old Scotch’s back-to-back triumph.

“It was a hard game to watch, particularly in that last quarter. So congested. Not one I’ll watch back too often, I don’t think!” Dean laughs.

“But while it was awful to live through, it was a great way to win. Those hard-fought wins when everything seems to be going against you are really special.

“I love the off-field group I’ve got. I’m really proud of the impact they’ve had in keeping the players driven. We’ve won three flags together now, and getting together with them for an hour post-game was unforgettable. We had a few laughs and took it all in.

“I’m not a great coach. I’m not a tactical genius. I surround myself with people who cover for my vulnerabilities. What I am is caring, invested and loyal. I care about people. I spend a lot of time having conversations with players about where they’re at and why they missed out.

“I’m helping players become the best versions of themselves as humans. As you get older, you become less selfish & more giving. You get rewarded for contributing to the success of others, including the people who help me off the field. I really love seeing them celebrate success.”

“The reaction of the players was priceless. Both Grand Final wins were really hard. In 2024 versus St Kevin’s, it wasn’t until the last couple of minutes that I realised we had it won, and this one went right to the death, obviously.

“They feel a little different, though. In 2024, we’d been building all year to try and challenge St Kevin’s, who were the benchmark. But then we lost the Second Semi to them, so coming back to win a fortnight later felt a bit unbelievable, in a way. It was really exciting as a group.

“This one in 2025 was more of a relief. It’s definitely been a more challenging year on a number of fronts, and it’s been more about keeping the pieces together. We lost our captain, Mia Caffrey, for most of the season, and it felt like this year, we were navigating our way through a bit more than last year, when we were just striving to get up there and be good enough to challenge.

“From a coaching perspective, I have a big role to play with our Reserves as well, as we tend to train the entire group together. When we first started, our Reserves would lose by 120 points all the time, with girls playing two games back-to-back as we didn’t have enough numbers.

“Most of our Reserves girls tasted senior footy this year. I love our girls in the Twos just as much, so it was really rewarding to see them also win the flag after being beaten so badly on Grand Final Day last year. We had 15-16 girls play in both flags. Three players graduated from the Reserves last year, so that was rewarding.

“We lost a couple of good players, had a few bumps in the road and got over them. We ended up with 3 or 4 players who missed out on playing in the Grand Final, and they’ll all be back next season.”

“Our overall day this year, with both the Reserves and Seniors winning, gave us an even greater sense of achievement. Our team manager (Rick ‘Cowboy’ Western) has been at the club for 44 years and hadn’t experienced a single flag until last year. Now we’ve won three in 12 months.

“That reinforces how hard they are to win and how special this period is for the club right now. I’m close friends with Mick Blood, who won five straight flags with Old Xavs, and he keeps me focused on continuing to press for more success with this group.”

As a proud ex-Caulfield Grammarian, the fact that this year’s victory came at the expense of his old team added a bittersweet tinge to the achievement.

“Looking at Caulfield’s growth in both the women’s and men’s programs has meant a lot to me,” Dean says with a smile.

“I played in an E-Grade flag for Caulfield, and coached D-Grade flags & C-Grade finals. The club has come so far since then, and I take a lot of pride & joy in their current success & direction. Socially, the group of people I see the most are my best mates from Caulfield. I’m in Caulfield group chats. So it was ironic that both our Grand Final wins were over Caulfield this year.”

It was an unforgettable day that capped another incredible season for the team.

“We’re very proud of the five girls who represented the Big V, along with Jordy Mifsud for winning best on ground in the Grand Final, and Mia Cowan for winning the League Best and Fairest.

“These all fall into the ‘reward for effort’ category. Katie Hunter-Scott captaining us for the first time – and doing it so well – was a win also. So, it was a very successful season when all is said & done.”

When pressed for the key pillars behind their premiership success this season, Dean was quick to respond.

“We have a very committed whole-of-club group. They do the work, they are driven, and our infrastructure is strong off the field. All of that positions us well. Those little things around leadership and culture – they are value-adds that help.

“Next year, I want to work on giving more opportunities to those around me, as well as opportunities for some of the girls to experience coaching too. Jordy Mifsud, Jade Wise and a couple of others are interested in coaching space, and that can be another string to our bow in investing in people.

“As for recruiting, the girls do most of it. I barely make a recruiting call. They are so invested & driven to make the club the best it can be.”

When it comes to list management for 2026, Anderson’s main focus is internal.

“My priority is always improving on what we’ve got,” he said.

“We’ve had a couple of dominant Reserves players with good run in them this year, and we’re working on developing their game sense. Keep helping players strive to be their best.

“Our retention will be reasonable, and we also have a few who didn’t play in the Grand Final but will be back and available.

“From a team perspective, we’ve got some gaps. We need more speed and more endurance, and we can always improve our fundamental skills. It’s amazing how far we’ve come in four years working on the basics, such as ground balls, quick hands, tackling and kicking. That’s rewarding in itself. Do the mundane often to become really good at it.

“The set-up of our team defence won’t be overly different. But because the skills in Premier Women’s footy aren’t absolutely elite compared with the higher levels, it still tends to be easier to defend, and that’s why we can see low-scoring games.

“However, as we’ve seen in AFLW, once that shift comes through with retention of the ball in offence via spreading, switching, overlap run-and-carry, and hitting targets on the move, teams can crack opposition defences open quickly. That’s where our competition will shift in the next five years also – cleaner offensive processes – and right now, Caulfield are best at that, I reckon.”

Dean’s attention has squarely turned to chasing the premiership hat-trick in 2026.

“As I mentioned, the last two years were very different – one as the hunters, the next as the hunted. To be honest, what winning back-to-back flags means to the group will resonate better in time – when all is said and done, and this era ultimately ends.

“At the moment, our girls are still in that ‘conquering mode.’ They want more and more. To keep cracking in and think about what’s next. That’s what drives dynasties – you need the right people in the tent. If you have leadership and culture sorted, that can drive sustained success. You can easily lose your way without the right leaders and culture. We’ve seen examples of both at AFL level in teams that have and haven’t turned into dynasties.

“That’s a great challenge to keep them going. This group is a proud group, and I don’t think it will be overly difficult to get them believing and committed to trying to do it again. Generally speaking, our girls want to push on and see where this group can go.

“They’re pretty unflappable and will be okay with being considered the benchmark. They won’t get comfortable. Their standards won’t drop off.”

As for Dean’s hunger, the 58-year-old is just as keen to keep going.

“I haven’t got a lot left! I reckon Tommy (Purcell, St Kevin’s coach) will last longer than me!” he laughs. “But I’ve got good people around me, and it’s easier to be involved than it is to spectate. I’ve got two sons, Noah and Luca, who both play, and I find watching them is harder than coaching.

“I’ve coached more than 500 games, and it might sound unusual to say, but coaching is a form of meditation for me. It’s my outlet. I train with the girls, so it’s also good for my health and fitness.

“It’s rewarding to help people achieve, and I’m philosophical enough to know that it doesn’t always work. But I like to have an impact positioning a group for success. We can’t win all the time, but as long as we’re positioned to compete, that’s the main thing.

“There’s nothing like competition – it’s quite thrilling.”

The 2025 William Buck Premier Women’s season certainly was, and we can expect more of the same in 2026 as the competition continues to develop.

The Fields will be hellbent on knocking the Stars off their perch and claiming the crown, while the Saints and Bears will be determined to re-enter the premiership equation. Will another contender announce itself from outside this year’s Final 4, or even from this year’s Premier B landscape?

If back-to-back flags were tough, Dean Anderson and his Old Scotch team are fully aware that the three-peat will be even tougher.

But that’s just the way this gritty group likes it.